What do you think is the net worth of this individual? My buddies and I were debating it.
Top corporate / M&A lawyer at a top 50 firm notable firm (I have no idea how law firm rankings work but it is a place many have heard of). He is the co chair of a practice at the firm and has been at the one firm since graduating law school. He is in early / mid 50’s.
His clients are all the biggest corporate legal cases and bankruptcy things that are all over the news (think billionaire moguls, the major pharma and airline cases, etc.).
He has also lived very, very frugally for his income. Has lived in the same house since first bought a home. No second homes, no crazy cars, no lavish purchases. Kids through state schools.
What do you his net worth is today? Doing the math of if he invested most of it gives you an insane net worth it’s tough to believe we were arguing. Or we are vastly inflating his income? We were thinking he makes $2-$3mm a year but no idea since he is co-chair and has super high profile clients that he works with.
What do you all think?
Assuming market returns on majority of NW invested in equities, probably solid 20-30MM including partner equity
co-chair at top law firm? probs pulling $5-10mm easily a year if not more TBH. given stonk appreciation in markets for these ol boomers, I'd say his net worth is north of $50mm
How would you define top law firm? It’s ranked towards #50 on vault, but everyone I say the name to recognizes and says a good one
How does the Vault ranking compare to AM Law or Chambers?
Is he a litigator?
I’m not sure. Is there a way to tell. I know he does a LOT of work in the courtrooms during the actual trial and leading them, etc. So I think he may be a litigator?
He is a transactional lawyer mostly because he sits in the Corporate / M&A department.
He may be in court because he also partakes in bankruptcy cases, where lawyers often hop between transactional work and court work.
But the fact that you also talk about some big names and billionaires, he may also undertake other responsibilities and go to court even if it's not what usually a Corporate M&A lawyer would do.
On your question, I think he may be worth somewhere $30M:
- Graduates at 25yo and has 55yo = 30 years in role.
- First 10 years: Associate/Senior etc. so he gets around 200-300k-400k incremented gradually.
- Reaches partner at around 35, so salary bump to 750k-1m-1.25
- 5-8 years as partner building his book, so he gets around 1m per year
- 45yo ends up with a strong book/appointed Co-Chair, etc. so he may be at 1.5-2m for the last 10 years.
That's strictly from the career. If he lived frugally and invested religiously, then $50M is also perfectly possible.
Is dechert a top law firm?
They're solid - on par with, like, Mayer Brown and Cadwalader.
they’re big / one of the primary go toe in the registered fund space, not as much in others but still respected
Top lawyers make insane $ these days (a lot more than they did 10-15 years ago). K&E reported a profit per equity partner of $8M in 2024 - which is after bonuses/salary. Think about the senior partners there who have a weighted equity allocation - the top chairs at K&E probably made $20M-$30M given there are more profitable practices like M&A/BX.
Obviously there's a big drop-off from K&E to Top 50 BigLaw but this guy is probably clearing $3M-15M depending on which practice he is in. Big variance but $2M-$3M is way too low for a position like this. Net worth doesn't reflect this though b/c lawyers did not make nearly as much pre-COVID.
This is causing problems where equity at these BigLaw firms is so valuable that junior partners can't afford to buy in, lol.
EDIT: looks like average profit per equity partner at the top 100 law firms is $2.4M in 2024. So yeah - if this guy is chair in transactional/M&A department easily clearing $3M-$5M at least at a Top 50 and likely closer to $5M-$15M if he's closer to top 25 depending on how the firm allocates equity. #20 (I can't see rest of the list, behind paywall) reported $4.4M in profit per equity partner which should translate to that $5M-$15M figure.
I would probably guess the top lawyers in the world (of which there are truly only a handful) are making $50M+ p.a. which is insane compared to just 10-15 years ago where upside was much more capped.
I thought many of the law firms had structures to ensure young partners are offered shares, whereas old partners retire and sell their shares back at a fraction of actual value?
It's discounted but still extremely expensive. Buy-in as a first year equity partner at K&E for example costs $1.5M and it's in some weird "baby equity" structure that I don't fully understand. Full buy-in is ~$2.5M last I heard.
It should be noted that many young partners are actually junior partners that don't come with equity in the firm.
Also, Kirkland is the top of the pay scale for partners. You shouldn't use K&E as a benchmark unless they literally work at Kirkland. Kirkland is basically the only big law firm that is ran more in line with how a bank is.
exactly. gf is an ex M&A lawyer from a big law firm (she's in house now) and this is exactly what she said - partners at any reputable firm should be pulling north of $5mm even if they are "nobodies" at reputable firms. Partner comp has gone up a lot since covid
Damn so sounds like this guy could really have $30mm - $50mm saved
The average salary for a partner at WLRK is about $5M per year so if he is at the very top of the firm he could be clearing a lot more.
This is a super loaded question, It can be menial to 7 figures, I know a guy who went to UNH and barely makes six figures, and my HS class president (IG profile "I peaked in High School") went to Harvard and Harvard Law. He makes almost as much as my former roommate who defends Saudi Oil assets.
Dude, the guy from UNH making six figures isn't a partner at a law firm. Partners at a big law firm are pulling down mid 7 figures, no question.
Your buddy might be a paralegal or something, but that's not really the question.
your profile description is absolutely hilarious
Good lawyers generally make partner in their mid to late 30s. Partners at a big law firm in a reasonably successful part of the firm are making $5mm a year, easy. As in, that's close to the minimum. Obviously a heavy hitter with big clients who is billing lots of hours on high profile cases could be doing a whole lot better than that.
Big law is insane. The problem with it is that your WLB sucks forever. Even once you make partner, you are still logging 80+ hour weeks because staying there requires a lot of hours billed. Maybe once you're really an institution and have a brand, that can change. But hey, even if you don't get a ton of time with your family, that mid seven figure annual salary goes a long way
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